There is a species of ant which can self-medicate on poisonous hydrogen peroxide. Colonies of collective insects like ants and bees are vulnerable to disease. One way to accomplish this is toingest otherwise harmful substances to fight infection. At a University in Finland, have now shown that Formica fuscaants choose to eat hydrogen peroxide if they have a certain fungal disease. Infected ants had better survival odds if fed a diet laced with hydrogen peroxide. Healthy ants tended to avoid the spiked food. However, the infected ants ate more of it, suggesting they somehow felt that it would benefit them. The fact that ingestion of this substance carries a fitness cost in the absence of pathogens provides evidence that social insects medicate themselves against fungal infection, using a substance that carries a fitness cost to uninfected individuals.
